Business Growth Blog
Hello! This is where I share my experiences of setting up, running and scaling businesses.
Read more to learn about the highs and lows, the good and bad times, the great times, and the downright difficult times. I share how I hunted out opportunities, secured investment, sold businesses and formed strategic partnerships.
This blog is all about business growth. I write on my favourite topics such as marketing (a big part of business growth), digital transformation, and helping clients to put together a proper strategy for growth. I also do regular interviews live on LinkedIn with experts and founders, then share it to The Growth Podcast, and here on the blog too.
Who do you need in your business right now?
Which of these 3 key roles are you missing in your scale-up? I know from setting up and scaling businesses myself, it can be really lonely, can't it? As an entrepreneur, as a business founder, everyone's looking to you for the answers. For direction, for encouragement. Developing those leadership...
How to stop your emotions from hijacking your business
Click here to listen to this episode of the Starting to Scale Podcast with Emmie Faust - interview with Elise Finn on the topic of managing your emotions. As the founder of a business, you’ll be exposed to frequent stressful situations. An investment bid falls through. A contract proposal is...
Looking after yourself is key
Have you deprioritised the things that make you feel good? This post was inspired by a podcast episode where I talked to Elise Finn about how to manage emotions and the importance of looking after our own wellbeing first. Over 20 years of starting, scaling and selling businesses, I’ve learned what...
Get amazing insights from surveying your audience
Have you asked your customers what they want? There is nothing like a good bit of research. Now is a good time to find out how you can help your customers. If you are setting up a business, scaling up, or looking to secure investment you need to know as much as you can about your target audience,...
Coach vs consultant – which does your upscaling business need right now?
Leadership Coach vs Business Growth Consultant - which one does your business need right now? Last week I invited my friend Rebecca Morley onto my podcast. As she’s a coach and I’m a consultant you might think we’d see ourselves as competitors, but we don’t! We’re actually going to be...
Now is a great time to connect and foster relationships
What strategic partnerships can you create right now? I am amazed by the kindness and the openness of people at the moment ? For the last week or so I have been reaching out to strategic partners and even my competitors. I’ve had some amazing conversations with these people – who are all up for...
Have you put your plans to scale on hold?
Has your business been frozen by the current circumstances? Normally, as founders, it’s us seeking the change. Getting out there, making it happen. Changing things on purpose. To grow. To scale. And to experience more success. We’ve told ourselves we’re good at change. That we can handle it. But...
Securing investment on Dragon’s Den and then failing…
6 things I learnt from failing on BBC's Dragons' Den I rarely talk about my Dragon's Den experience in 2005 with my business partner at the time. We secured £200k, a record investment, on series 5 with Theo Paphitis for an online bingo comparison site. Earlier this week I had a great chat with...
Have you thought about podcasting?
Have you thought about podcasting? Do you feel connected to your customers? Do you want to add more value to your audience? Building trust and rapport are two key priorities when it comes to growing your business and selling more. We all know that consumers need to know, like, and trust before...
The wellbeing of your staff is super important… As is your own
Wellbeing is critical to business success I talk about this a lot because wellbeing is so important, both to founders and to employees. Emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing are the building blocks for a successful business. This is, of course, a hot topic because billions of pounds are lost...
Why you need to understand your numbers
Being able to understand your financial documents and the numbers in your business is vital! Despite using ‘top’ London accountants, we had a situation in our first year where our accountants overstated our profit by £100K because they didn’t properly understand our business. Or maybe they just...
It takes courage to be a founder
Wow, it really does take courage to be a founder. At the moment I see the huge amount of strain and stress that is being experienced by founders as they navigate this time through Coronavirus. Looking after staff, having to furlough staff, maybe having to let staff go. Money, funds, budget, cash...
How to plan for an efficient, stress-free first fundraise
Do you think that sometime soon you are going to start looking for investment? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the jargon, the process and when to bring in expert help? You’re not alone. But there are some steps you can take to make your first fundraise more likely to succeed. I know this from my...
The marketing activities you really need to focus on (clue – it’s not social media)
The marketing activities that you really need to focus on Have you had a disappointing ad campaign? Or struggled to see results from social media? Maybe you have no idea what marketing content you should be putting out online. I see so many start-ups and scale-ups wasting time and money on...
Cash is king: managing your P&L
Cash is king - how to manage your P&L over the next 12 months With our first agency, all our clients pre-paid us. With our second business, they were on 30 days postpay and we got hit hard! At the time we didn't realise the luxury of having all our clients prepay us. Their funds safely in the...